Republican gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman speaks at the California Taxpayers' Association annual meeting in Sacramento, Calif. on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. Whitman, the former chief executive of eBay, is being challenged in the Republican primary by state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman speaks at the...

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Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor, discusses his campaign during an interview with the Associated Press in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. Poizner is running against former eBay CEOMeg Whitman for the nomination.

Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP

Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a candidate for the...

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California Attorney General Jerry Brown, speaks during a news conference Tuesday April 6, 2010 in Los Angeles. Actor Corey Haim employed "doctor shopping" to obtain 553 prescription pills in the two months before his death, Brown said Tuesday.

Billionaire Republican Meg Whitman's decision to toss another $20 million of her own money into her campaign to become California's next governor has set off a tsunami of mud-slinging attack ads - and a pricey new chapter in a record-breaking race to the top.

Whitman's announcement Tuesday that she has bulked up her gubernatorial campaign coffers - putting her total personal investment at $59 million - came as her Republican rival, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, unveiled new radio ads.

Poizner's spots slammed Whitman as representing "Arnold Schwarzenegger's third term" and questioned the former eBay CEO's conservative credentials. At the same time, Whitman added to her arsenal of anti-Poizner spots with a new ad hitting him for being "behind the wheel" as California headed over the cliff on budgetary issues.

And for the first time, the attacks targeted Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, who was the focus of a new $185,000 independent expenditure campaign by the California Chamber of Commerce.

Dubbed "Enough is Enough," the effort includes a 30-second video that slams the former two-term governor for having "a 35-year record of higher spending and taxes," and being against Proposition 13, the tax-cutting measure approved by state voters in 1978.

Shaping the race

The latest chapter in the 2010 governor's race, which comes two months before the June primary and seven months before the November general election, underscores how Whitman's record-shattering donations to her campaign are playing a dominant role in shaping the race, which is on pace to be the most negative and expensive in state history.

Whitman's latest donation to her campaign drew heated charges from supporters of Brown and Poizner, who say she is trying to "buy the election," and it set off a wave of ads and countercharges among the three campaigns.

"We knew Meg Whitman was rich, but through this campaign we've learned that she lies, too," Poizner spokeswoman Bettina Inclan said in a memo to reporters. "She is spending whatever it takes to lie about Steve Poizner. ... Never before in U.S. history has someone so blatantly tried to buy an election."

Poizner, another wealthy former Silicon Valley executive, has put $19 million of his own money into the race. He lags more than 40 points behind Whitman in the polls but has vowed to aggressively challenge her in the final weeks of the primary campaign.

He reported spending $3.1 million between Jan. 1 and March 17, and has $14 million in his campaign war chest. This week, he met Whitman's decision to drop an additional $20 million into the race with a new ad starring conservative Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay (Placer County).

The ad argues that Poizner is "the only true conservative" in the race, and charges that Whitman "endorsed" Al Gore in 2000, campaigned for and endorsed Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2004, supports public funding for abortions, and holds the same position on immigration amnesty as President Obama.

Whitman strikes back

Whitman spokeswoman Sarah Pompei responded with force, saying "there's only one candidate who gave $21,000 to elect Al Gore in 2000 - and that's Steve Poizner," adding that Whitman "contributed to, and endorsed, President Bush's campaign over Al Gore in 2000."

In 1999, campaign finance records show that Whitman gave mostly to GOP causes and donated $1,000 to George W. Bush, although at least two news reports listed her as endorsing Gore. After she appeared at Gore's side at an event that year, she told The Chronicle that she had donated to both presidential candidates and did not intend to take sides in the race.

Pompei said Poizner's new ad is a "desperate attempt to disguise his previous support for $40 billion in higher taxes and his record of wasteful spending in Sacramento; which is just another reason you can't trust him."

Attack after attack

The Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, began its attacks on Brown as Brown's campaign spokesman, Sterling Clifford, struck back at Whitman's latest money move.

Democratic independent groups also came to the defense of Brown - who reported spending $144,000 between Jan. 1 and March 17, and has $14 million on hand, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

The California Democratic Party has put up an Internet ad to the tune of "Money, Money, Money" in which it calculated what Whitman's $59 million personal check to her campaign could buy for the state of California - hiring 1,092 police officers, preventing 1,180 teacher layoffs or purchasing 23 million school lunches.

"We find it pretty funny that the California Chamber of Commerce would attack Jerry Brown on jobs and spending when Meg Whitman is the layoff-loving candidate," said Nick Velazquez, spokesman for the California Accountability Project, a group funded by the Democratic Governor's Association.

He said Whitman has publicly acknowledged her role in major workforce cuts at FTD and Hasbro, two companies where she worked prior to eBay.